In 2016 Ritchie Bros. held six auctions at its flagship site in Edmonton, AB, selling 43,500 equipment items and trucks for C$728 million ($559 million).

This includes a two-day auction on December 8 to December 9 when 4,500 items were sold for C$66 million ($50 million).

This year, Ritchie Bros. registered a record 65,800 bidders in Edmonton, up 12% from 2015. Approximately 69% of these bidders registered to participate online, up approximately 6% from 2015. In 2016, online bidders purchased C$450 million ($347 million) of the equipment sold in Edmonton—up approximately 11% from 2015.

“We helped more Alberta companies than ever before turn their underutilized or idle assets into cash this year,” said Brian Glenn, senior vice president of Ritchie Bros. “At the same time we set new company bidder records, with as many as 16,000 bidders for a single auction. Our ability to reach the right buyers from Alberta, across Canada and around the world helped us achieve solid returns for our sellers. The pricing levels achieved in last week’s auction were very encouraging for our sellers as we saw good returns for assets in all categories.”

For the December 8 to December 9 auction, 7,550 people registered to bid from 52 countries. Approximately 88% of the equipment in the auction was sold to Canadian buyers (by dollar value), including 55% sold to Albertans with about 10% sold to U.S. buyers. Online buyers purchased 67% of the equipment.